It has your basic ranch floor plan with basic materials used to build it. It's not an older home and its not brand new. So it's lacking those charming touches that older houses with character have and it doesn't have the latest and greatest materials used for building that new houses have. But it's in a great neighborhood with amazing neighbors, so there's a trade-off and one we can definitely deal with.
I decided I am going to build my house's character one small step at a time. And I started really small - with closet door pulls. I think whoever built our house shopped at the ugly knob store and found the cheapest pulls he could - ugly plastic!
So I got rid of them. Our master bedroom closet now has lovely, round, brushed nickel pulls on both doors. IKEA, people! Gotta love that store.
My daughter's room deserved a little sparkle so I found a crystal pull she says looks like a diamond. And its perfect for a little girl's room.
Now the playroom/spare bedroom has a neutral yet tasteful pull in nickel. This one was a complete bargain - 99 cents in the discount bin! You can't tell me a builder couldn't take five minutes to pick out something like this or any of the others instead of that plastic eyesore.
It's amazing what a difference something so small makes. And it was easy and cheap! When I think about those older houses full of character, it's all the little details that add up to something so great.
Now that this particular character building exercise is over, it's on to bigger problems - trim! More to come...
I'm in the same boat. We bought a house with the amount of space we needed for our family, for the price we could afford, but without much character or detail. We decided we could slowly add those things over time. The small things really do make a difference. One of my projects this year is to replace all of our cheap brass builder-grade doorknobs with something more substantial.
ReplyDeleteP.S. How fun that we used the same color for our playrooms!